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Tag: Georgia

Hector Ulises Garay spent 22 years running from charges that he murdered a Georgia man during an attempted robbery.

The 51-year-old fugitive is now behind bars after he was captured in El Salvador, where members of the FBI’s Atlanta Metro Major Offender Task Force picked him up and transported him back to Atlanta. He’s now lodged in the Gwinnett County Jail without bond on murder charges.

Border agents in Central America flagged Garay when he tried to travel from El Salvador to Honduras.

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes. These fugitives never go off our radar,” FBI spokesperson Kevin Rowson to Fox 5 News.

Gary is accused of murdering Adalberto Salines during an attempted robbery at Salines’ home on Jan. 21, 1996.

According to the FBI, Garay shot and killed Salines when he wouldn’t let him in the home. “We don’t believe people should get away with murder,” Rowson said.

A self-described white supremacist was convicted of multiple charges related to a plot to kill a drug deal with outstanding debts in Georgia.

The case broke open after an FBI informant and admitted white nationalist alerted the bureau to Adrian Apodaca, saying the Florida man had admitted to murdering several people in New Mexico and Arizona, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

The FBI dispatched a team of undercover agents posing as white supremacists who were owed money by an Atlanta drug dealer, who also was an FBI plant.

Recordings played at the trial indicate Apodaca offered to kill the “dealer” in exchange for $5,000 and a false identity to avoid investigators who wanted to question him in at least one murder.

Jurors took just three hours to convict Apodaca, 45. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 8.

A former FBI agent’s conviction in connection with sharing confidential information with a married woman with whom he was having an affair may have jeopardized as many as three child predator cases.

While heading the now-disbanded joint local-federal Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in northwest Georgia, Ken Hillman allowed Angela Russell and her then-husband Emerson Russell take part in the arrests of suspects, AJC.com reports.

In addition, Hillman let Angela Russell past as an underage girl in internet chats during a sting on sexual predators.

Now one to three of the cases that arose from the sting may have been jeopardized because of the Russell’s involvement. The suspects are accused of meeting children for sex in northwest Georgia.

The ATF released a disturbing new report that shows national firearm theft and losses in gun shops increased 20% in 2016.

The report indicates that 18,394 weapons were stolen last year, and a vast majority were pistols, rifles, revolvers and shotguns.

“Losses and thefts of firearms have increased dramatically in terms of the gun stores,” ATF Special Agent Michael Knight told WHNT19 News.

He added: “Also, what has increased extremely, at a high rate, is the armed robberies, and this is a violent crime. This means that the public could potentially be at arms length of the criminal element who are focusing on these gun stores.”

Georgia led the nation with 1,539 stolen or missing firearms in 2016. Florida followed with 1,260 and Texas with 1,247.

On Feb. 2, Gibbs was arrested on suspicion on reckless conduct and citation of probation. According to a police report, Gibbs’ mother said her son has mental health issues, including schizophrenia.

“We have identified no evidence that any poisonous or toxic substances have been dispersed or that the public is at risk, and we are coordinating with the 4th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team of the Army National Guard and the Cherokee County Fire Department to ensure that the area is safe,” US Attorney John Horn said in a statement.

Fannin County Sheriff Dane Kirby said Gibbs’ ricin was found in Gibbs’ car.

It’s unlikely that the exposure was accidental, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It would take a deliberate act to make ricin and use it to poison people,” the CDC website states. “Unintentional exposure to ricin is highly unlikely, except through the ingestion of castor beans.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp claims in a letter to Homeland Security that his office discovered that a DHS Internet address tried to breach the computer system, the Hill reports.

The system also contains personal information of more than 6.5 million residents, 800,000 corporate entities and 500,000 licensed or registered professional.

“On November 15, 2016, an IP address associated with the Department of Homeland Security made an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the Georgia Secretary of State’s firewall,” Kemp wrote. “I am writing you to ask whether DHS was aware of this attempt and, if so, why DHS was attempting to breach our firewall.”

The hack, if there was one, occurred a week after the election.

Homeland Security said it is investigating.

“DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly,” said Deputy Press Secretary Scott McConnell.